worldly entertainment (smoke & mirrors)

       The following is a developed observation and study over many years from observing the effects of worldly entertainment upon myself first and then others. My first question for us is this, according to ROM. 1:28 what is the cause for GOD giving men over to a reprobate mind?

Not retaining the knowledge of GOD is without a doubt the cause. As I was entering the movie theater on one occasion, I believe it was the spirit of GOD speaking to me and saying, you are about to enter a world where I do not exist. As I began to muse upon this thought, I realized that this whole movie experience is a time given over to the imagination of men who do not acknowledge the existence of GOD much less the purpose of HIS dealings with mankind.

Do we really think that sitting in a room that is created to encapsulate all of our senses and while basically being engulfed in the atmosphere of a world where GOD is a joke that this does not effect us? Our sense of smell & taste (popcorn), our sense of sound & sight,and our sense of touch (vibration from the sound) all making us feel at ease while we let down our guard and relax and forget this is GODS world from whom we receive our very breath.

While we observe the good moral message and content of a film we often forget to whom this morality and goodness is being attributed,isn't it unto a man and not to GOD? Let us take for example a very moral and so called clean T.V. show as leave it to Beaver. A family setting where Ward Cleaver's son Beaver is forever getting into a mess, and at the end of the episode Ward all ways sets beaver on the good and moral high ground by teaching him the error of his ways and showing him the path to being a good and upright citizen.

Now most evangelical Christians would have no problem with this show,but my whole concern with this show and ones like it is this, where was GOD ? Did Ward ever mention or even imply that morality apart from Christ is as filthy rags,and our own efforts to achieve goodness;GOD rejects. The whole problem is we do not expect this of any secular show but we still watch it and have no qualms about its implications of a life where goodness is a virtue that is born of man,thus exalting man to a place that exclusively belongs to GOD.( Mark 10:18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God)  . 

 While you may trivialize the point I am making as me being over zealous and not in tune with the current trends in christian culture, this mode of thinking leads me into the subject of this writing (smoke & mirrors) one of satans best kept secrets;the movie rating system. A diversion from the true purpose of worldly entertainment; to substitute GODLENESS with morality in order to lead Christians into a state of apathy when it comes to honoring GOD as the author of all goodness in man.

What is the first thing we do when it comes to watching a new movie are show? Do we not consult the world (movie rating system) rather than GODS own spirit and word! The worlds rating system only deals with moral issues and not GODLENESS, we allow ourselves to be fooled into thinking it is ok because it is moral. We have become so used to the concept of morality being equated with GODLENESS that we can relax and digest a show called AMERICAN IDOL without the least bit of concern for GODS honor or wrath!! It is like satan himself is flaunting his victory over the lives of the American Christians,he is taking a bow in front of GOD and man for his cleverness .

Let me ask you is it moral to leave GODS longing to commune with us in order to live in a place if for only a few hours,where He is not welcome much less exalted? When are we going to stop letting the world dictate to us what is right and what is wrong? Are we still eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ? There is another tree out there that only the redeemed of the lord have a right to partake, it is the tree of LIFE. Morality could never and will never make us whole, communion with the living GOD is the only true moral high ground.

I know I will take a beating for this one, but just look around and tell me Christians are not full of the world! I know at the work place most professing Christians are looked upon as just regular folk with a religious hang up, and rightly so in a lot of cases. I attribute a lot of this to the complacent attitude of most Christians on this issue of morality being equated with GODLENESS. The longing to be entertained by the world while having very little desire to commune with our heavenly Father is in my estimation the friendship with the world spoken of in James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

I am not crying holier-than- thou because I am as guilty as the worst of us,but this I can attest to, since I resolved to make communing with my heavenly Father the most treasured event of the day, the craving for the worlds pleasures have melted away and HE has become my true entertainment and delight. Delight your self in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Time spent in worldly entertainment is most likely time that belongs to the FATHER. I see and hear Christians every where crying for revival, but as much as I hear the cry,I see no earnest willingness to give up our treasured fun and worldly entertainment for a visit from our FATHER. reason for edit:  added spaces for easier reading                         http://crossconnectfellowship.com/

Can you please break this up? It is very hard to read long, long written pieces like this.

I some how duplicated a post so i erased this one. sorry

To brother FaithALONE: sorry about the long article on worldly
entertainment,it is much easier to read on my web site if you
would care to.Not wanting to offend anyone please accept my apology. Here is a link to cross connect fellowship

http://crossconnectfellowship.com/

Actually,Richy,

You have spoken a great and welcoming truth.

It reminded me of a time in my life when the Lord spoke to me about a matter,that I will never forget and said,

" The ways of this world are not My ways. "

The Lord bless you with more and more of Himself,

elizabeth

ritchie,

I appreciate the article...your conclusions are some I am coming to as well.

The basic thing is that much of entertainment is a waste of time. We are called to redeem the time and how does one do it? God was creative during the six days of creation. Since man is made in his image, how can we be creative, bringing honor and glory to our creator? There is great delight and pleasure in being about, create what God is compelling us to do.

Appreciate you sharing....

BTW, welcome to the forum.

ginnyrose

Always love to hear from A W TOZER, a remarkable man of GOD.Thanks again

look forward to sharing with you again!

His ways are so much greater than ours, that unless HE allows
us to understand by HIS grace we are totally without hope,but thank GOD that JESUS humbled HIMSELF so we could receive this
Great Salvation!!!!!!!

Well Ritchie, it is most certainly true, even the BEST shows from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s- back when things were still clean were completely Godless shows: NO mention of God or prayer in any of them, except in an irreverent,casual, or mocking way. Shows like the Brady Bunch, Family Affair, Hazel, Rawhide, and others...no acknowledgment of God and His authority over the affairs of men, no reference to church (unless of course it was Catholic, then it was a positive reference usually but true Christianity is always mocked), and no turning to prayer as a source of power, answer, or comfort when times get tough. Just humanism (aka man worship) and if religion was ever portrayed positively it was only in reference to the man worship and ritualistic system known as Catholicism. It is clear, EXTREMELY clear, that all Hollywood is EXTREMELY anti-God. And Satanic: there are even several Hollywood actors who have been named as friends of former Church of Satan leader Anton LaVey. But all this is to be expected, of course, since Hollywood's god is 1. money and 2. debauchery&fornication.

But i expect that one day just the right earthquake will come to California...

QUOTE: "In todays culture, they don't want you to know what is good or moral, they want you to do whatever you think is good and moral."==APPROVED

Approved, while i don't quite agree with everything you are saying, i do somewhat agree. I think the Leave it to Beaver was a good example that he gave. On the other hand, in my own life, such shows as that one and Brady Bunch were a GODSEND to me as an abused child in a family filled with strife and authoritarianism--without them i may never have known what a GOOD and HEALTHY family should behave like! In those shows the parents TALKED to their children rather than beating them, screaming & yelling at them, and the parents were calm, sensible, RATIONAL, loving, compassionate, and KIND. They reasoned with their children and discussed things and gave APPROPRIATE discipline when necessary. So although the shows are/were of the world, they DO/DID have some value. From them i learned PROPER parenting skills, recognizing from them that the ways of my parents were NOT the way to behave. And believe you me, it is a good thing i had that healthy example, as i babysat many children from the time i was age 12 and on up. Furthermore, during the one hour or half hour a family show like those was on i could at least escape from my own world for that one half hour. Those shows were a blessing to me, despite their flaws.

And yes, you are right, today's tv trash is loaded with relativism.

Krispy wrote:

"The Andy Griffith Show... church was mentioned quite frequently, and so was God. Andy could be seen on the front porch picking the guitar and singing a gospel song.

At least there was one show."

Hallelujah! You beat me to the punch. Just the other day I was watching an episode where Andy & Barney were harmonizing "There is a Fountain" while working in the courthouse.

Please y'all, you can't really criticise shows like "Andy Griffith" or "Leave it to Beaver" or "Father Knows Best" and the like because they didn't preach the gospel message during the program. They were wholesome and innocent shows. Quite frankly, I would not want them to be preaching the gospel message during the program. That wasn't their purpose. The days of those types of shows are long gone, I am afraid.

How many times did you after having just watched a leave it to beaver episode, ever say: you know, that Ward Cleaver needs to get right with GOD? Answer: none. Question: why not?

This is why: I never associated Ward with being a sinner,because sinners are always immoral, and Ward was anything but immoral.
And now we are back to the main point I am attempting to make, GODLINESS is not synonymous with morality.

Ask yourself this, is a high moral standard, that is totally dissociated from GOD, what we want our children to embrace? Because if it is, remember this, morality is subject to environment or beliefs, what is accepted in one arena is not in another. Subjective morality is an open playing field for satan. The homosexual community has a moral standard too, it's just not based on the absolute truth of GODS word!!

A quote from a sermon I heard, I don't recall the preachers name:
“ In America it is harder to get people lost than to get them saved”

The point being, people in the western culture have a hard time accepting they are sinners, and I believe one of the main reasons for such thinking is this subtle influence of being raised on what I call
GODLESS morality. I am as moral as the next guy, so I don't need
to repent!

In my humble opinion, morality that is thought by what ever means,
without accrediting it to GOD'S law, is far more damaging to our society than any show that is obviously defying GOD'S word. Even if the standard is one thought in GOD'S word, we must always accredit it to GOD lest we be in danger of exalting our own goodness, which GOD calls filthy rags!

Krispy wrote:
"God gave some the ability to create art, whether it be paintings, poetry, literature, music... and even acting."

I find it amazing that Christians, imbued with the Holy Spirit, have not been far influential in the world of art today. I am sure some of the great composers of the past were Christians, but it seems like there is a dearth of quality Christian movies, for example. The one film that everyone points to is "The Passion" and it was indeed a very good film but even Mel is likely a nominal Christian, at best. I am not saying that movies like "Courageous" aren't good; they just aren't great. Why is that?

Proverbs 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Romans 1:28-31 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Krispy wrote:
"Now, you want to see some beautiful works of art pertaining to Christianity? Go to the art museum on the Bob Jones University campus in Greenville, SC. Wow... it's the largest collection of religious art in the world, with the exception of the art museum at the Vatican. It's breath-taking."

I have family in Greenville area and fully intend to see this. I agree with your post in its entirety. Well said.

ritchie wrote:
"Proverbs 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Romans 1:28-31 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless."

It would be helpful if you would state why you quoted those verses. Are you trying to make a point about something someone said? Mere scripture quotations with ambiguous intent are not very helpful.

What is satan primarily trying to get people to except? In the garden what was his focus in regard to his tempting Eve? His question and statements were all implying, you can have fulfillment without GODS direction and help, in fact you can even be equal with God Himself,you will be like GOD knowing good and evil.

Ever since his first encounter with man in the garden, satan's agenda has not changed, he aims to bring man to a place of self exaltation because he knows from experience what the result of such folly is. He has developed quite a clever marketing strategy to implement his agenda; he leads man down a deceptive path in order to mask his true purpose which is making man believe in his own inherent goodness apart from GOD. He markets the idea that being moral and being GODLY are one in the same, this naturally leads man to assume that if I have high moral standards I am like GOD.

Even people who claim not to believe in GOD will accept this concept of morality as being a GOD like virtue. Here in lies the problem, morality is always subject to environment , what is acceptable in one arena might not be in another thus making morality subjective. So if morality is equal with GODLENESS and morality is subjective, then GOD is in subjection to my arena of thought, thus making me the god of my own world. What ever is right for me might not be right for you, thus negating absolute truth. Does this not sound exactly like modern day secular theology?

But wait, what about Christians, surly they understand that being moral is not the same as being GODLY, or do they? If you were to ask the average believer today what he looks far in a person that would indicate a relationship with our dear LORD, you might be surprised at the answers you would get! Morality would most certainly have to be an obvious trait, but morality based on what? Morality for a Christian is unique to Gods word or HIS law. The problem is Christian morality gets mingled in with all other secular based moralities and they are viewed as one in the same.

The homosexual community has Christian based moral values mixed in with their own moral values and attempt to validate their lifestyle based on morality because it is morally wrong to discriminate. If morality is the supreme dictator in our understanding and theology, we have most certainly missed the mark. Governing our every day activities based solely on morality allows us to have no need of a daily commune with our FATHER GOD.

What I find in the christian community is this, we neglect a consultation with GOD on issues such as entertainment, dress ,ect.......in exchange for a moral standard, we allow morality to dictate our standard,when our standard should be every word that proceeds from the mouth of GOD. I am not implying Christians should not adhere to a moral standard, just that we have come to rely on the standard while neglecting the ever abiding presence of our FATHER.

It is easier to govern or actions based on morality than to spend the time necessary to hear from our FATHER. A lifestyle based strictly on morality will soon become legalistic and unfruitful, all the while leading us away from communion with GOD. I find we become tolerant of and even friendly with worldly ways as long as they fit in a moral box, not even considering how GODS honor has been violated. Never forget this one thing, if GOD is being robbed of the honor due HIM, I do not care how moral, clean, and upright a matter or situation is, it originated in the mind of satan. We Christians must get back to honoring GOD in every aspect of our lives if we are ever going to see HIS glory manifested in our midst.

On "Leave it to Beaver" today, Beaver wanted it to rain because he broke the kite his dad made him for kite day. He asked his mom how to make it rain. She gave him three options:

1) cloud seeding
2) prayer
3) indian rain dance

Beaver went with #3. What a little pagan.

QUOTE:
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A lifestyle based strictly on morality will soon become legalistic and unfruitful, all the while leading us away from communion with GOD. I find we become tolerant of and even friendly with worldly ways as long as they fit in a moral box,
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So true.

Then the next step is one approves of them. Romans 1:32 (NASB) comes to mind:

32and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

How frightening is this? Reminds of of what wise observer used to say, "People are getting used to the dark."